User blog:DodoOfDoom/How to create a good Location Page
The location pages are a way for players, or just curious people in general to look at a variety of different places created in Mario hacks. It is also used as a guide to beat those levels are get hints and tips about how to get to the objectives and other important locations in each area. Locations include all major levels, secret stars, cap palaces, and even overworlds. There are various sections to each page including the area description, the main objective guides, the minor objective guides, and trivia. Not all pages will have all of these, but most will. In addition, one will need to familiarize themselves with the Category: Infobox Location and which categories to use to make a page earier to find and navigate. The layout is influenced by the Mario Wiki, as this site is the main Wikipedia version of the entire Mario universe. Also remember that people reading these are already familiar with Mario 64 (no matter how much or little) and that the game is still in fact Mario 64. Do not repeat obvious information that relates to the original game. The first aspect that the guide needs is the Infobox. This provides a quick guide to the area including specifics like stars required, the links to the levels on the page, the bosses fought, and the link to the music used, along with a picture that represents the entire level. When on editor (not source code), the infobox is the first thing on the entire page, and has to be inserted before any text. If not, it will be in an awkward position. If you do not know any of the information or are having trouble, leave it blank and someone else will gladly fill in the blanks. After this is the course description. The description is an extensive, but simple description of everything in the level. This acts as a way to get familiar with what a level looks like and what to look for, as well as a way to describe everything. Information in this part should be elaborated and be as descriptive as possible or needs to be. Things to include in this part are: Location of the level, theme of the level, Flora, main gimmick, plot behind the level, texture, landmarks, layout, and anything else good for an overview. Specifics, like progression or how to get places should be saved for the body/objective guides, as people who are not interested in playing the level would not understand the purpose of this. Next you should put the Heading objectives/levels and put each objective as a next heading that is smaller. This will allow a "content" table of contents to appear on the page, for fast locations to specific stars. Objective Guides are used to players of the hack who want a hint or want to how to get to an objective. Objectives are not limited to stars or whatever the creator has the character collecting, but includes Caps, entrances to other levels, 100 coins, boss strategies, or Bob-omb Buddies. Start with a brief sentence on what the purpose of the objective is. This is used as a quick hint to where the objective is located and guide players in the right direction without them having to read the lengthy guide that comes after. Something simple like "Mario must climb the high tower to reach this star" is an example of how each objective should start. In the actual guide use as many landmarks as possible in describing where to go (like coins, towers, windmills ect) instead of just relying on directions. If a location does not have any objectives, this part can be skipped. After that is the Trivia portion. '''ANY '''reference, no matter how obvious it is to the writter, should be pointed out here. These include allusions to other games, puns, and any references. Other than this, add whatever you feel is interesting or should be noted. If it is important (such as a common softlock or error), it should be included in description or level guides. Lastly is the category additions. Each main level should be under the category level as well as the hack it's corresponding location category. This is so that people can search all levels in a hack or just all levels in general. What is the difference between the Star Road and Star Road Locations categories? Eventually other information like enemies, creator, ect will be added to the Star Road category and not the Locations one. Also included is the type of terrain it is (factory, fortress, water area) as well as a Music category. I hope this guide proved helpfull and if there are any additions you need to make or problems with it, please contact me to discuss it. DodoOfDoom Category:Blog posts